Shopee charts rapid growth

Southeast Asian pure-play mCommerce operator Shopee says it has reached US$1.8 billion in annualised GMV just a year after its launch.

App-based Shopee operates in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and and Taiwan.

The Garena-backed company says it has achieved a month-on-month growth of 43 per cent, with 25 million downloads of its mobile app to date and 65 million product listings.

“2016 has been great for us,” said CEO Chris Feng. “As we look forward to 2017, we expect to maintain the strong double-digit growth that we’ve experienced in the past year. We will also continue to focus our efforts on optimising the product, improving the end-to-end user experience and in empowering entrepreneurs to expand and grow their online businesses.”

As part of Shopee’s focus on the customer experience, the company released the Consumer Behaviour Report 2016 that revealed region-wide insights around shopping patterns on the mobile app.

“These insights have outlined a clear roadmap for consumer engagement – enabling the platform to introduce offerings such as integrated local logistics, Shopee guarantee and social-led features such as the Live Chat and hashtag functions. Shopee has also been bringing together aspiring entrepreneurs over the year, empowering them to be more effective sellers through initiatives such as Shopee University and campus initiatives such as the Shopee X NUS mCommerce Challenge,” the company said in a statement.

The report highlighted that more than 50% of Shopee’s users access the app daily, with an average engagement period of more than 20 minutes per session. Shopee engages its customers by holding interactive contests and games for customers to win prizes, and also offers innovative social-led features such as the Live Chat and hashtag functions for users to stay ahead of trends.